Shedeur Sanders has to deliver something extraordinary in the NFL to get the skeptics off his back. He has braved heaps of taunts and has now officially leaped to the NFL. Yet, whispers persist that he’s riding on his last name rather than raw talent. Yet, the narrative isn’t just about Shedeur. This time, dad Deion Sanders and brother Bucky are also being roped into the allegations around the QB’s continued hype.

There’s no denying that the Sanders clan changed Colorado football for good. Deion and his three sons made up all the talking points about the program in the media. Shedeur Sanders had a ghastly fall in the draft, and trolls reveled in it, pointing to nepotism and calling the draft his ‘humbling’ moment. But now that Shedeur is a Browns QB, he is doing his best to prove that he is taking this gig seriously. “I’m here for the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns,” he said at a June 10 presser, refusing to answer questions about his dad’s health issues.

But his mindset is yet to convince some that he is out of his father’s shadow for good. In a June 13 video of the Fearless with Jason Whitlock show, the host accused Coach Prime and Deion Sanders Jr. of churning out narratives for the QB even now. “Shedeur Sanders, constantly, constantly, he’s in the news cycle constantly… I’m starting to think that Deion and Deion Sanders Jr. and that Well Off media machine is at the heart of and is the engine driving all the conversation about Shedeur Sanders,” the host claimed. We sure know that Bucky was working overtime ahead of and during his draft, batting for both his brothers.

Whitlock read some tweets that came from anonymous sources, all in high praise of Shedeur. “’Browns reportedly could see the possibility that Shedeur Sanders could back up Joe Flacco.’ Manufactured tweet. Just anything to drive conversation around Shedeur Sanders,” he said, suspicious that all of them were true. “They’re turning him into gold chain-wearing Tim Tebow. I think it’s going to blow up in their face,” he argued. Expert Steve Kim also weighed in on the debate. “I completely agree. We want the social media approval from a certain group of people, that if we are critical or too honest, well, we’re going to get blowback that we don’t want. And so a lot of this is engagement farming.”

Kim also claimed that social media presence is a key target for the Sanders clan. “Deion always thought of himself as a player in his prime as the ultimate hype man, the ultimate promoter of self. And Deion is applying that to Shedeur in this modern age. And they’re like, hey, man, social media kind of hurt us before the draft. We’re going to make social media work for us during post-draft. And so we’re going to push out all this positive hype in order to counter the negative hype,” he claimed.

Well Off Media is Coach Prime’s understated right arm behind the scenes in Boulder. Bucky runs the show and decides who gets to see what from the team. Since he took over the social media of Colorado football, Deion Sanders Jr. was able to record a 500% increase in social media footprint in the very first year of Coach Prime’s arrival in Boulder. A video showcasing Sanders’ first interaction with the Colorado team in 2023 now has 4.9 million views. Another depicting an “elite” Shedeur Sanders stands at 113K views. Bucky is a huge, huge reason why the Sanders brothers and Coach Prime remain in the media.

When it comes to Shedeur’s fate in the NFL, his No. 1 competitor continues to be Dillon Gabriel, selected by the Browns 2 rounds before Shedeur. Is there a chance the two will no longer be teammates in the future?

Will the Cleveland Browns cut Dillon Gabriel from the roster?

The idea of either of the two QBs tapping out in the race is slowly getting traction. The Browns are reportedly looking to free up one of the rookie spots. This means that either Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel will have to pack their bags. But the Browns are in a dilemma. Sanders brings with him the spotlight and talent, and Gabriel falters a little when it comes to the branding part. But Gabriel is an excellent dual-threat QB and has racked up 18,122 passing yards in his collegiate career. That’s not a number that’s easy for the Browns to pass up.

The rumors of Gabriel being traded as part of a preseason deal are solely because the QB room in Cleveland is immensely crowded. “How many teams in the last 25 years have kept four quarterbacks throughout the season?… Most teams only keep two. They don’t even keep three,” Steve Kim argued. The Browns have four QBs that are ready to start the season: Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Gabriel, and Sanders. The Miami Dolphins are predicted to land Gabriel if this scenario does pan out in the future. They were keen to have him on board from the start, but the Browns picked him early.

Someone is going to leave the QB room in Cleveland at some point in the future. Whoever HC Kevin Stefanski decides to cut will be a loss for both parties. In the meantime, the Sanders clan continues to bolster Shedeur as the dominant player when it comes to his battle with Dillon Gabriel.